I've been playing Android: Netrunner for a couple months now, but this just clicked to me now so I figured I would share.
There are 3 different costs in A:N and they are significantly different and have different icons to indicate those differences.
You see this on Operations for the Corps and every card for the Runners.
Pretty straightforward: pay the cost, play the card.
As an action, The Corp may spend 1 credit and 1 click to add an advancement token on an Agenda. If an Agenda has an advancement cost of N and it has N or more advancement tokens on it, it may be scored.
Agendas may only be scored:
- at the start of the Corp's turn
- after each Corp action
Found on ICE, Assets and Upgrades for the Corp. Rez costs are paid all at once but have different timing depending on the card that they are on.
If the card is ICE, the rez cost can only be paid when a runner encounters that piece of ICE.
If a card is an Asset or an Upgrade, it can be rezzed:
- at the start of each turn
- at the end of the turn
- after each action
- after the Runner declares whether they will continue (or not continue) with the run, meaning they approach the next piece of ICE or the contents of the server.
Many cards that have rez costs can also be advanced, however, the N advancement tokens on a card with a rez cost do not count towards the rez cost of that card.